For biographer Bob Spitz to go from an acclaimed book about The Beatles to a biography of cooking legend Julia Child is not as much of a stretch as it might appear to be.

In his new Knopf book, "Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child," ($29.95) Spitz makes a strong case for his subject as one of the towering cultural figures of the second half of the 20th century.

Child helped to shift America from the TV dinner mindset of the 1950s to the foodie universe in which we have now lived in for decades; she revolutionized cookbooks and celebrity book tours; and she was more or less responsible for the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service as we know it today.

Spitz spent several weeks in 1992 traveling with Child in Sicily for a series of magazine articles. He was immediately taken with the idea of a full-scale biography, but that project was put on hold for the massive Beatles book.

It wasn't until after Child died in 2004 that Spitz plunged deep into her "remarkable life."

The warm and affectionate tone of the biography -- which establishes a direct connection with the reader -- took the writer a long time to develop.

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"It's my voice, and it's similar to what I did in the Beatles book. I feel that I have to be a storyteller. I want to take you along and put you in the same room (with my subjects)," Spitz said in a recent phone interview from New York City. Although we seem to be living Julia's life with her as the 529 pages unfold, Spitz said he worked hard to avoid delivering a hagiography of a secular saint.

"I thought it was important to show Julia as a human being with all of her foibles," he said.

Arriving at the warm, confiding voice of "Dearie" took Spitz years of research and thinking about Julia.

"I saw how hard she worked. As I was writing the book, I realized how similar she was to the Beatles -- it was all about hard work (and patience). She took it one step further because (she was part of a) time when women were emerging. Not only finding their voices, but realizing they weren't appendages (to men)," Spitz said.

"It was at the beginning of the women's movement. While Julia wasn't a flag-waving feminist by any stretch of the imagination, she was so confident in her womanhood that nothing interfered (with her rise)," the biographer added.

Without any previous broadcasting experience, the 50-year-old Child quickly became one of the biggest television stars of her time. And her popularity helped to build a public television network years before the arrival of "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater."

"She really became a star just by being herself, a seemingly unglamorous ordinary woman. She did not have media training, she didn't have a batallion of stylists. When she went on TV in 1963, she didn't OWN a TV," Spitz said.

What Child had was a form of eccentric charisma that quickly captivated viewers of all ages -- and both sexes -- and made them think they could put convenience foods aside and give gourmet cooking a whirl.

"I've talked to hundreds of men who were young boys then who thought she was a scream," Spitz said of the early days of "The French Chef."

"Dearie" also tells the unusual love story of Julia and her husband, Paul, who worked together for U.S. intelligence during World War II and then settled into a long life in Cambridge, Mass. When the decline of Paul's academic career coincided with Julia's emergence as a cooking star, he happily became her right-hand man.

"He was thrilled by her success ... and never regretted being Mr. Julia Child," Spitz said.

Award-winning journalist and author Kati Marton will be at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. to talk about her new book, "Paris: A Love Story."

The publisher describes the memoir as "an impassioned story of love, loss, and life after loss. Paris is at the heart of this deeply moving account, and how, after the sudden death of her husband, Richard Holbrooke, the city offers a chance for a fresh beginning.

"The book is a love letter to Paris, to the famous loves of her life, to her family, to her children, to life itself. It's also an inspiring story for anybody who has had their life upended."